Draymond Green goes off on Paul Pierce for criticism of Kevin Durant
The Warriors forward says he doesn't care, and then talks a lot about what the Truth said
By
Matt Moore
•
3 min read
Paul Pierce added his voice to those criticizing Kevin Durant for leaving the Thunder to join the Warriors on Thursday, and that came with not a small amount of hypocritical thinking. Later in the day, Warriors forward Draymond Green ... went off on the subject.
GREEN: "I just wonder at what point do they get bored talking about the same thing. You got all these guys talking. Like [Paul] Pierce today, like, dude nobody care what you did or who you did it for. Just give it a break. Everybody got something to say and want to take everything he say and twist it. Like, he play with the Warriors. OKC has their team, we have our team. He left there. Nobody complain when somebody leave Apple and go to Google. Aren't they in competition with each other? Nobody talk junk about the CEO who leaves Apple and goes to Google. As a basketball player, you are the CEO of a business. You are a business. Kevin Durant is a big business. He is the CEO of that business. So him going to play basketball for a different team, the CEO decided to leave where he was at and go somewhere else."
"But there's so many guys in this league that are so stupid they don't think like that. They don't think business wise. It happens every day in the world. But in basketball it's a problem. Aren't you competitive in your day job if you work for Apple? Don't you want to outdo Google? What's the difference on the basketball court. It's your day job. You want to do what's better for you. If it's better for your family life, better for your happiness. Ain't no one criticizing them. I don't understand it. I'll never understand it. So that's just me. And I'd be willing to bet my salary ain't many guys in this league more competitive than me."
Source: Draymond Green goes off on Paul Pierce, others who criticize Kevin Durant's decision.
Well, there's just a lot to unpack here.
1. Draymond's been asked about it in an interview, so you want to forgive him for not being able to seamlessly construct a clear argument on the fly. However, this analogy explodes into a million pieces. We could send this to a freshman composition professor and they would tear the thing to pieces. KD's a business but he's also the CEO of that business, but it's also like he left and took another CEO job at a different company, except he is the company, and also Apple and Google. If that sentence doesn't sound like it makes sense, that's because it doesn't.
2. Apple and Google actually had a non-poaching agreement, which in this situation the Warriors would have absolutely violated with how often they texted Kevin Durant last season, and have admitted as much. But much like how the NBA views tampering when it's between players, it's not something that can be legislated, as a court actually struck it down. But that just muddles the entire idea further.
3. Green's central idea is sound, that players think of themselves not as representative of a greater concept, the franchise, but instead as individual entities working for these different companies (teams), and that they have a right and responsibility to pursue their own happiness. He's also right that sports are the only environment where a person is criticized for making a job change to what he feels is a better gig.
4. However, this argument in whole dismisses and ignores the real emotional element in sports. Sports are analogous to other people's jobs in many respects, but they do operate in their own special environment. People do not buy jerseys of CEOs. And, if Green wants to make them a 1-to-1 comparison, employees of one company do not go around kicking employees of other companies in the crotch when they are competing over a market share. Not even at Tech Crunch Disrupt.
Players want to consider themselves business, but be treated like human players with real human emotions and problems. That's fair, but it's a two-way street. And if you don't think people are upset when their leader leaves for another company, a competitor, then you haven't been out in the world much.
5. It's good for Green to stick up for a teammate, but maybe calling out the future Hall of Famer and saying "nobody cares what you did," even if he only meant it in this instance, isn't the best look. If nothing else, this is another sign that the Warriors continue to be really uncomfortable with the villain tag that they not only asked for, but printed out bumper stickers, made T-shirts and registered "TheWarriorsAreNowTheNBAVillains.com" for.
